This cookie has a cake-y consistency and holds together really well. It's not crumbly at all! They also lift off the pan easily.
Dry ingredients:
1 cup oat flour
1 cup coconut
1 cup quick oats
2/3 cup dark brown sugar (don't press it down)
1 tsp cinnamon or Dash of cinnamon to taste
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup arrowroot powder
Mix these dry ingredients together in a bowl.
Wet ingredients:
Lemon zest from one whole lemon
1/2 cup butter
1TB maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking soda
2 eggs
1 TB water
Melt butter, lemon zest, syrup, vanilla in a pan. Add baking soda and stir. If and when it bubbles up the pan, remove from heat and mix in with the dry ingredients. Mix in the two eggs and the water until you have a dough.
Baking instructions:
Grease baking sheet, blob the dough onto the sheet into vaguely-cookie-esque dabs and bake in a 325-degree oven until top of cookies do not collapse when you touch them, about 15-20 min. Let cookies cool on pan a bit and then carefully remove.
Makes approximately 20-24 cookies.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Wheat-free carob-cointreau anzac cookies
I ran out of cocoa and I ran out of coconut, so I substituted carob and cointreau. The results are quite satisfying, and the cookies have the same consistency as anzac cookies made with wheat flour. You could substitute coconut oil for butter to make this a vegan cookie.
Dry ingredients:
1/3 cup oat flour
1/3 cup carob powder (although you couldn’t go amiss with cocoa either)
1/2 cup quick oats
1/2 cup dark brown sugar (don't press it down)
1tsp cinnamon or Dash of cinnamon to taste
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup arrowroot powder
2 TB (or more to taste) Hemp seeds
Mix these dry ingredients together in a bowl.
Wet ingredients:
Lemon zest from one whole lemon
1/4 cup butter
1TB maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
1tsp cointreau
1tsp lemon juice
1tsp baking soda
Melt butter, lemon zest, syrup, vanilla, cointreau, lemon juice in a pan. Add baking soda and stir. If and when it bubbles up the pan, remove from heat and mix in with the dry ingredients. Add up to 2TB water if dough is too dry.
Baking instructions:
Grease baking sheet, blob the dough onto the sheet into vaguely cookie-esque dabs and bake in a 325-degree oven for 12 min. Do not exceed 14 minutes. Let cookies cool on pan a bit and then carefully remove. Devour the broken cookies, as they don’t count.
If you are worried about broken cookies, use parchment paper but I don’t know how to use the stuff, myself.
Makes approximately 1 dozen cookies.
Dry ingredients:
1/3 cup oat flour
1/3 cup carob powder (although you couldn’t go amiss with cocoa either)
1/2 cup quick oats
1/2 cup dark brown sugar (don't press it down)
1tsp cinnamon or Dash of cinnamon to taste
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup arrowroot powder
2 TB (or more to taste) Hemp seeds
Mix these dry ingredients together in a bowl.
Wet ingredients:
Lemon zest from one whole lemon
1/4 cup butter
1TB maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
1tsp cointreau
1tsp lemon juice
1tsp baking soda
Melt butter, lemon zest, syrup, vanilla, cointreau, lemon juice in a pan. Add baking soda and stir. If and when it bubbles up the pan, remove from heat and mix in with the dry ingredients. Add up to 2TB water if dough is too dry.
Baking instructions:
Grease baking sheet, blob the dough onto the sheet into vaguely cookie-esque dabs and bake in a 325-degree oven for 12 min. Do not exceed 14 minutes. Let cookies cool on pan a bit and then carefully remove. Devour the broken cookies, as they don’t count.
If you are worried about broken cookies, use parchment paper but I don’t know how to use the stuff, myself.
Makes approximately 1 dozen cookies.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Amuse-gueule
I wrote this for a story challenge on a sci-fi blog called The World in a Satin Bag. The story challenge is as follows: write "A steampunk culinary cat mystery involving manga in 300 words or less."
I'm quite happy with the results, I think. (I hope.)
Amuse-gueule
The woman walked out of the steam billowing over the dirigible platform. Cradling an exotic shorthair cat in her muscular arms, she looked down after shyly meeting my gaze. The edges of her angularly-cut hair slid over her face in perfumed curtains.
Twin swords were laced into her striped corset. Her skirts looked more like petticoats than proper wear for a young lady. By God, she was half-naked, her legs and feet bare. I couldn’t stop looking.
She was perfect, my own personal manga heroine come to life.
I cleared my throat. "You know why you are here?" I asked.
She raised her eyebrow and the cat yawned. "It’s no mystery to me," she said.
"You’ll do it? Kill my wife?" I said, smoothing my cravat nervously, unable to quell my hands. "You do realize how evil she is?"
The assassin pulled out a lacquered keypad. Tiny puffs of steam huffed out of the device as she tapped the ivory keys. She held out the keypad and a stylus. "Please sign the screen," she said, biting her lip, for all the world as if anticipating some pleasure she wasn’t sure that she would receive.
I signed with a flourish. She grabbed my arm in a fierce pinch, dragging me up into the dirigible’s stateroom. "I say, my dear girl—" My words jammed in my soft palate.
I was facing my wife. She was, incongruously, carrying a spoon.
"I’m not sure I need to watch—" I said. The swords came down upon my skull, slicing my scalp, leaving my brain intact, if exposed.
"He consented?" my wife hissed.
"He signed the contract."
"Excellent. A willing victim increases the salutary effects for zombies such as ourselves."
My wife’s spoon dipped into my brains. She fed the assassin’s cat first.
I'm quite happy with the results, I think. (I hope.)
Amuse-gueule
The woman walked out of the steam billowing over the dirigible platform. Cradling an exotic shorthair cat in her muscular arms, she looked down after shyly meeting my gaze. The edges of her angularly-cut hair slid over her face in perfumed curtains.
Twin swords were laced into her striped corset. Her skirts looked more like petticoats than proper wear for a young lady. By God, she was half-naked, her legs and feet bare. I couldn’t stop looking.
She was perfect, my own personal manga heroine come to life.
I cleared my throat. "You know why you are here?" I asked.
She raised her eyebrow and the cat yawned. "It’s no mystery to me," she said.
"You’ll do it? Kill my wife?" I said, smoothing my cravat nervously, unable to quell my hands. "You do realize how evil she is?"
The assassin pulled out a lacquered keypad. Tiny puffs of steam huffed out of the device as she tapped the ivory keys. She held out the keypad and a stylus. "Please sign the screen," she said, biting her lip, for all the world as if anticipating some pleasure she wasn’t sure that she would receive.
I signed with a flourish. She grabbed my arm in a fierce pinch, dragging me up into the dirigible’s stateroom. "I say, my dear girl—" My words jammed in my soft palate.
I was facing my wife. She was, incongruously, carrying a spoon.
"I’m not sure I need to watch—" I said. The swords came down upon my skull, slicing my scalp, leaving my brain intact, if exposed.
"He consented?" my wife hissed.
"He signed the contract."
"Excellent. A willing victim increases the salutary effects for zombies such as ourselves."
My wife’s spoon dipped into my brains. She fed the assassin’s cat first.
Weeping for the Villain—The Season Finale of Legend of the Seeker
Well in the end the writers of Legend of the Seeker wrapped up the season ender in a way that captured the book in spirit, if not in the plot points.
WARNING! Here be spoilers! Arrrr! (For some reason that sounds better in a pirate voice.) Although I'm the only person I know watching this show, so probably no one but me cares.
For a plot that involved time travel and pregnancy, both of which I usually think of as jump-the-shark scenarios, it was pretty good.
Everything was fully resolved. You can tell that the writers didn't think this show would go to second season. Now that it has been picked up again, I guess they are going to mine the second book for plots.
I want to say it was resolved in a satisfying way, and it was, except that my favourite character is the villain Darken Rahl. I loved that the last few episodes had a lot of Rahl action but now he's very dead.
I'm curious to see what they are going to do with Cara, the Mord-Sith so I am looking forward to next season for that. And, well, at least we have the Seeker's chest to look at, which has enough screen presence that it is almost like a character in its own right.
WARNING! Here be spoilers! Arrrr! (For some reason that sounds better in a pirate voice.) Although I'm the only person I know watching this show, so probably no one but me cares.
For a plot that involved time travel and pregnancy, both of which I usually think of as jump-the-shark scenarios, it was pretty good.
Everything was fully resolved. You can tell that the writers didn't think this show would go to second season. Now that it has been picked up again, I guess they are going to mine the second book for plots.
I want to say it was resolved in a satisfying way, and it was, except that my favourite character is the villain Darken Rahl. I loved that the last few episodes had a lot of Rahl action but now he's very dead.
I'm curious to see what they are going to do with Cara, the Mord-Sith so I am looking forward to next season for that. And, well, at least we have the Seeker's chest to look at, which has enough screen presence that it is almost like a character in its own right.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
J.J. Abrams's Big Red Plot Device, Or 99 Luftballoons
Star Trek had more plot holes than black holes, but it didn't matter. I still went to see it twice this weekend, because of the extreme hotness of Spock. I haven't seen a movie twice in the theatres in probably over ten years, so that's saying something.
But so far I seem to be the only person I know who noticed that J.J. Abrams used a giant red sphere as plot device AGAIN. Abrams resolved season 4 of Alias with a giant red golf ball that floated over Russia and turned an entire town's populace into zombies. In Star Trek it's 99 luftballoons for a second time, with an orb of "red matter" that creates black holes. It didn't work the first time for Alias, and it doesn't work in Star Trek (2009).
All balls aside, I loved this movie. Not because it was good, but because it rawked. The action was great, the sets were pretty, the banter made me laugh, there were tons of Trek references and Zachary Quinto did an amazing job as Spock. He carries this movie. Really, all the actors caught their characters well. Plotting is not J.J. Abrams' strong point, but he's really good at creating compelling characters.
With Enterprise and this current movie and the death of Rodenberry, I feel that the Trek universe is becoming much more politically conservative and jingoistic. I loved the Vulcan/human relationships in Enterprise and in Star Trek (2009), but the way the characters solve problems through violence was something I had to actively look past to enjoy the show and this new movie.
The whole point of the original Trek universe was to imagine an essentially positive future where humans had got over the worst of their nature and were trying to live in the world ethically and peacefully. Not many sci-fi worlds are positive about humanity's fate so I really valued Trek's vision of a noble humanity. Sadly, but without giving away any plot points, Star Trek (2009) has lost this hope and lacks the some of the depth of the original. The new movie is shiny and fun, but, as one of my friends said, "It's like cotton candy."
Luckily, this cotton candy is pretty damn good.
But so far I seem to be the only person I know who noticed that J.J. Abrams used a giant red sphere as plot device AGAIN. Abrams resolved season 4 of Alias with a giant red golf ball that floated over Russia and turned an entire town's populace into zombies. In Star Trek it's 99 luftballoons for a second time, with an orb of "red matter" that creates black holes. It didn't work the first time for Alias, and it doesn't work in Star Trek (2009).
All balls aside, I loved this movie. Not because it was good, but because it rawked. The action was great, the sets were pretty, the banter made me laugh, there were tons of Trek references and Zachary Quinto did an amazing job as Spock. He carries this movie. Really, all the actors caught their characters well. Plotting is not J.J. Abrams' strong point, but he's really good at creating compelling characters.
With Enterprise and this current movie and the death of Rodenberry, I feel that the Trek universe is becoming much more politically conservative and jingoistic. I loved the Vulcan/human relationships in Enterprise and in Star Trek (2009), but the way the characters solve problems through violence was something I had to actively look past to enjoy the show and this new movie.
The whole point of the original Trek universe was to imagine an essentially positive future where humans had got over the worst of their nature and were trying to live in the world ethically and peacefully. Not many sci-fi worlds are positive about humanity's fate so I really valued Trek's vision of a noble humanity. Sadly, but without giving away any plot points, Star Trek (2009) has lost this hope and lacks the some of the depth of the original. The new movie is shiny and fun, but, as one of my friends said, "It's like cotton candy."
Luckily, this cotton candy is pretty damn good.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Caprica, BSG for the Young'uns
Here is where I catch up on yet another show. Caprica was certainly much better than the Doctor Who Easter special. I did feel like the creators of Caprica were repositioning Battlestar Galactica as a brand for the young adult market, which left a cynical taste in my mouth.
Caprica was a creation myth about the building of the first Cylon. It was set only 58 years before the events of BSG and I thought that the first Cylon war was longer than 18 years. Am I going crazy?
I felt that the club scenes were arresting in their concept and level of public nudity and violence, but it also tried very hard. But then they were the creation of teenagers and they do indeed try overly hard to be cool.
The acting was good, the casting and sets were good, and the twist at the end made the whole show. It's worth watching, especially for BSG fans. Of course, I'm so late in posting this that you've probably all seen it already.
What truly disappointed me is that this show reveals that the "one true god" of the Cylons was based on a human religion. I think this wrecks BSG a bit for me because I thought that having robots come up with their own monotheistic religion in contrast to their polytheistic creators was just so lovely. Now it's like a favourite toy has been broken, and I feel a bit sulky about it.
Caprica was a creation myth about the building of the first Cylon. It was set only 58 years before the events of BSG and I thought that the first Cylon war was longer than 18 years. Am I going crazy?
I felt that the club scenes were arresting in their concept and level of public nudity and violence, but it also tried very hard. But then they were the creation of teenagers and they do indeed try overly hard to be cool.
The acting was good, the casting and sets were good, and the twist at the end made the whole show. It's worth watching, especially for BSG fans. Of course, I'm so late in posting this that you've probably all seen it already.
What truly disappointed me is that this show reveals that the "one true god" of the Cylons was based on a human religion. I think this wrecks BSG a bit for me because I thought that having robots come up with their own monotheistic religion in contrast to their polytheistic creators was just so lovely. Now it's like a favourite toy has been broken, and I feel a bit sulky about it.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Found a Bad Egg: The Doctor Who Easter Special
I finally sat down to watch the Doctor Who Easter special, and I have to say it was a disappointment. I found that I had to keep rolling it back because my attention would wander, and that never happens to me when I'm watching something.
Russell T. Davies is like a British Joss Whedon. If I find a show by either writer, I'll watch it slavishly. But you can just tell that Davies is ready to move onto something new.
Even die-hard Doctor Who fans will find little to enjoy here, and the introduction of Michelle Ryan as companion does little to spice things up. I liked her in Jekyll and Bionic Woman, but despite trying hard, there is no chemistry between her and David Tennant.
Maybe they filmed this special to prepare us for the new doctor, because now I'm actually beginning to look forward to him.
Russell T. Davies is like a British Joss Whedon. If I find a show by either writer, I'll watch it slavishly. But you can just tell that Davies is ready to move onto something new.
Even die-hard Doctor Who fans will find little to enjoy here, and the introduction of Michelle Ryan as companion does little to spice things up. I liked her in Jekyll and Bionic Woman, but despite trying hard, there is no chemistry between her and David Tennant.
Maybe they filmed this special to prepare us for the new doctor, because now I'm actually beginning to look forward to him.
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